The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-04-21
THE SLUNG SHOT.
How a Mass of Dynamite al the End of .
Rope is to Blow Up the European
NaYies.

American inventive genius has pro
duced some startling results, but i
never took a more daring flight thai
that of adapting the slung shot to nava
warfare. A plan for attack on the higl
seas Is really i'll existence, the mode
being on exhibition in the rooms of tht
naval committee of the house, and i.
seriously approved by many able Off
GERS here, says Il Washington letter
which is practically the sinking of al
lron-clad with dynamite slung shot.
1t IS an essentially American idea, q
death graPple at close quarters, with
no spectacular effects, no comet-like
shells or torpedo water-spouts. 1t is
the latest modification of General Ber.
dams system.
The recent experiments in Europe,
where 1t took 800 pounds of dynamite
To shatter twenty-inch armor-plate
when exploded two feet beneath the
waters surface, and the failure of a
Whitehead torpedo to disable a gun
boat when lashed to its side and ex-
ploded, have shaken the faith of the of
ficers i'll the efficiency of torpedoes
when exploded near the water line.
More than that, the nets now used
seem TO offer an impenetrable bar to
the surface torpedo, as shown by their
failure in the great trial at Bantry Bay
two years ago.
General Berdan's idea is to strike at
the bottom of the ship where there is
no armor and where the explosive is
confined by the pressure of the water.
He builds light, unarmored cruiser of
$50 feet length and 16 feet draft. Men
and machinery are all below the water
line, and the enemy's iron-clad NAV
blaze away all she wants to as the
swift cruiser creeps up on her. Point
ing over the side of the Berdan cruiser,
amidships and to the rear, are a num-
Der of breech-loading guns that can be
inclined at any angle from the horizon.
tai to the perpendicularly downward.
In the guns are placed shells contain
ing three or four hundred pounds of
gun cotton. A wire cable, or sssnub-
bing cord' extends from the shell out
of the mouth of the gun and along the
side of the cruiser to the bows, where
it is so fastened as to swing freely.
The cruiser steams rapidly up to the
big ironclad, preferably in the night.
but even in broad daylight, regardless
of an occasional shot that may tear
through her upper works. She pushes
through the nets, and when the twenty
tive-foot spar projecting from her bows
touches the ironclad the engine is auto
matically reversed and some rocket
material in the back of the dynamite
shell ignited. The shell drops from
the muzzle of the gun, which is pointed
downward, and plows down through
the water on the circumference of a
circle whose radius is the length of its
snubbing cord and whose center is the
bow of the cruiser. When actual con
tact between the cruiser and ironclad
occur the shock is relieved by an atmos-
pheric buffer. The shell comes up on
the bottom of the ironclad like a sIung
shot on the head of a belated wayfarer,
and something is apt to be smashed.
As there are a number of these guns
and shells on each cruiser they may be
fired at different angles from the per-
pendiCular, and will strike at different
points along the bottom of the ironclad,
This is regarded as an important point,
as with the cellular ships now built it
is doubtful if one torpedo, however
powerful, can sink big ironclad. Ii
the ironclad sends cut torpedo boats
against the cruiser, they wilY be met
by improved Fish torpedoes operated
from the latter. The cruisers would
cost about 100000 apiece, and if they
fulfill the expectations of the officers
and the inventor they would seem to
solve the problem of the .'cheap de-
fense of nations"